Birthright Citizenship Essay

Below is a free essay on "Birthright Citizenship" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

Birthright Citizenship
The term “birthright citizenship” refers to the current practice of considering children born in the United States to automatically acquire U.S. citizenship. This issue is also commonly termed the “anchor baby” issue. An anchor baby is defined as an offspring of an illegal immigrant or other non-citizen, who under current legal interpretation becomes a United States citizen at birth. The legal authority for birthright citizenship in the U.S. originates in the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, mainly to guarantee citizenship for freed slaves after the U.S. Civil War. (1) I believe Congress should change birthright citizenship laws to exclude children of illegal immigrants from becoming automatic citizens. By not having stricter regulations on illegal immigration and birthright citizenship laws the United States cannot regulate population, education, or governmental spending.
New immigrants and their U.S. born children currently account for 75 to 80 percent of our annual population growth. Immigration accounted for three-quarters of population growth during the decade. Census Bureau data found 13.1 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) who arrived in the last 10 years; there were also about 8.2 million births to immigrant women during the decade.(2) What will happen to the United States when there is no land or resources left? The Unites States has allowed people to break the law by entering in our country illegally, but then rewards them by letting their children become U.S. citizens. I do not know how that makes sense! The fourteenth amendment to me is outdated and did not mean that all children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants should become citizens. The fourteenth amendment was written after the Civil War; at a time when America had brought slaves over to this country and who at the end of the war had been freed. It does not mean that a woman who is eight months pregnant can sneak over the border, have...